# Writers you love, but may not forgive (open spoilers anticipated) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 25, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602 "2016-05-25T00:04:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/21 "2016-05-26T12:22:54Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I gave up on her before that, when she attended a local convention and acted like a total shit to several people. I witnessed this, and was totally appalled. How can anyone be so cruel-spirited? Interesting. I remember she was very well-regarded in the fan and pro community and gave a lot back to the field (she ran a magazine for years that lost money but allowed a lot of new authors to get a start). I don’t know anyone thought badly of her, which is why when the revelations came out, it was such a shock. I did know her brother, Paul Edwin Zimmer. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/22 "2016-05-26T19:04:19Z")
The thing I hate is when a very good novelist with several successes under his belt dusts off some terrible, half-baked novels the author wrote as a callow youth. Unsuspecting readers will plod through the old dreck, and the book doesn’t tell us until the last page that the book had been submitted to, and rejected by, dozens of publishing houses. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/23 "2016-05-26T20:15:16Z")
I remember reading **Ender’s Game** and just LOVING it. Then reading **Speaker for the Dead** and kinda going “?” but digging it in its own way. Then I tried reading more **Orson Scott Card**. What a twit. In the same way, and still an issue for me: **Ernest Hemingway** - I could be okay if he was just a dick IRL but his writing was consistently great. But his casual racism and misogyny - enough. I remember loving A Farewell to Arms when reading it for school, and getting to the end when Frederick Henry sees Cat in the hospital. She sees him and says, weakly from her bed “Here’s Othello back from the wars.” To keep that light banter going, Frederick replies “Othello was a n\*\*\*\*\*\*” ?! Oh, that Ernie - always good with a turn of phrase. and yet his short story “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” stands in my mind as the greatest American short story, even over some by Faulkner, Steinbeck, and Fitzy. I hate that. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/24 "2016-05-26T20:23:38Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > I’m miffed at David Feldman, author of the Imponderables question-and-answer book series. I used to buy all his books, but no more. His publisher started issuing his old books under new titles. I was tricked into buying two volumes I already owned because I thought they were new. Now I’ll probably never buy another, even if assured that it’s 100% new. Yeah, I considered that a scam, myself. Gave one of them a \* star review. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/25 "2016-05-26T20:27:46Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Eowyn would never have been happy as Aragorn’s spare wheel. She could be a much more equal partner to Faramir. Aragorn’s heroic and all, but much too used to getting his own way. Arwen didn’t care so much for power and rulership, so she’d be ok with that. Not to mention, he lived to be 210 years old. To him, Eowyn was just a kid. He was King for 120 years, she’d be dead halfway thru. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/26 "2016-05-26T20:30:55Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Interesting. I remember she was very well-regarded in the fan and pro community and gave a lot back to the field (she ran a magazine for years that lost money but allowed a lot of new authors to get a start). I don’t know anyone thought badly of her, which is why when the revelations came out, it was such a shock. > > I did know her brother, Paul Edwin Zimmer. She was personally a shit to me, but just in passing as I was more or less beneath her notice, being just a security volunteer and not a important writer or well known Fandom contributor. Maybe it was a bad day for her, or something… ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/27 "2016-05-26T22:01:09Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Interesting. I remember she was very well-regarded in the fan and pro community and gave a lot back to the field (she ran a magazine for years that lost money but allowed a lot of new authors to get a start). . . . > > I did know her brother, Paul Edwin Zimmer. I met PEZ a few times, and he was decent. Chain-smoked, but decent! And, yeah, fair is fair, MZB was helpful to a lot of new writers. That’s a good thing to credit to her memory. > [@DrDeth](#): > > She was personally a shit to me, but just in passing as I was more or less beneath her notice, being just a security volunteer and not a important writer or well known Fandom contributor. Maybe it was a bad day for her, or something… She seemed to have an awful lot of that kind of bad day. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/28 "2016-05-26T22:06:29Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > And, yeah, fair is fair, MZB was helpful to a lot of new writers. That’s a good thing to credit to her memory. > > She seemed to have an awful lot of that kind of bad day. Well, like I said, I will give her the benefit of the doubt as it was a one time thing. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/29 "2016-05-26T22:29:13Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, like I said, I will give her the benefit of the doubt as it was a one time thing. She used up all the benefits of doubt with the kid fucking. ---
**Author:** ![Periwinkle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Periwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Periwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/30 "2016-05-26T22:39:45Z")
I always loved Jon Katz’s books about dogs, but then he wrote about his decision to put a dog down and I didn’t buy his reasons. On one hand it broke my heart to suspect that the dramatic effect for a book tipped the scale in favor of death, on the other hand he wrote about his dogs with such love that I could hardly believe he would do something so cold. This turmoil of thinking made me very angry at him. After a few years I got over it enough to buy more of his books, but this is definitely still a sore spot. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/31 "2016-05-26T22:41:09Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > She used up all the benefits of doubt with the kid fucking. Certainly, but i was only giving my personal experience. That stuff only came to light far later. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/32 "2016-05-26T23:21:36Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I met PEZ a few times, and he was decent. Chain-smoked, but decent! And it caught up with him. The last I saw him, he had stepped outside the hotel for a smoke. He was dead within an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/33 "2016-05-27T00:18:48Z")
Douglas Adams - I love the **HHGTTG** but damn did the ending of _Mostly Harmless_ suck. The [ending](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostly_Harmless#Radio) of the radio adaptation was much better. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2016, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/34 "2016-05-27T00:36:13Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Then I tried reading more **Orson Scott Card**. What a twit. The only OSC book I ever read and l_ **iked** _ was _The Lost Boys_. But oh, the ending was so sad. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2016, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/35 "2016-05-27T05:31:15Z")
> [@Barrett\_Bonden](#): > > It wasn’t even that Patrick O’Brien killed me, but that it was done offstage. :mad: Yeah, that was pretty darned irritating. ---
**Author:** ![misling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@misling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misling)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/36 "2016-05-27T13:47:41Z")
> [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](#): > > I and countless other readers will never forgive Louisa May Alcott for marrying handsome, noble Laurie to petulant, shallow Amy. I once stood at the Alcott family grave and moaned aloud, “Why, Louisa, _why_? You _know_ Laurie belonged with Jo!” Jo deserved better than Laurie. And Amy had reformed and grown up by the end of the book. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/37 "2016-05-27T14:21:21Z")
> [@misling](#): > > Jo deserved better than Laurie. > And Amy had reformed and grown up by the end of the book. As for Laurie and Jo, if the feeling ain’t there, it ain’t there. I think she saw him not romantically, but as a brother. I can’t account for her passion for Professor Baer (?) other than that he was a German, an intellectual, and (I think) at that time German music, books, etc. were seen as the world’s gold standard - a fad, in a way. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/38 "2016-05-27T17:54:28Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > As for Laurie and Jo, if the feeling ain’t there, it ain’t there. I think she saw him not romantically, but as a brother. I can’t account for her passion for Professor Baer (?) other than that he was a German, an intellectual, and (I think) at that time German music, books, etc. were seen as the world’s gold standard - a fad, in a way. I’m given to understand that Alcott would have preferred that Jo never marry–she herself never did, and Jo was largely based on her. We know from her journals and letters that she was absolutely appalled, after the first part of _Little Women_ was published, that the only thing that people seemed to ask her when they wrote to her about the book was “Who are the girls going to marry?” She seemed to regard the idea of Jo marrying anyone, in particular Laurie (who she saw, indeed, more as Jo’s brother-figure), as an absurd suggestion. The notion that getting married was “the only end and aim of a woman’s life” was quite troubling to her. She did eventually bow to the pressure, both from the reading public and from her publisher, and agreed to have Jo get married. But she invented Professor Bhaer for the purpose. As she told her publisher, “I won’t marry Jo to Laurie to please anybody.” It may be the first recorded case of a writer being pissed off at annoying shippers! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kelevra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2016, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/39 "2016-05-27T18:46:11Z")
The first chapter of The Witching Hour by Anne Rice was fantastic. It just catapulted me into the story. The best first chapter of any book I have ever read. The characters develop through several hundred pages until the last chapter where she throws it all away so she can write a sequel. Bah. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2016, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602/40 "2016-05-27T22:44:32Z")
> [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](#): > > I and countless other readers will never forgive Louisa May Alcott for marrying handsome, noble Laurie to petulant, shallow Amy. I once stood at the Alcott family grave and moaned aloud, “Why, Louisa, _why_? You _know_ Laurie belonged with Jo!” I thought Ms Alcott’s real sin was marrying Jo off to that old German coot who shows up in the last fifty pages. Ick. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-you-love-but-may-not-forgive-open-spoilers-anticipated/755602.md?page=3)